Archive for the 'Sometime you just need a' Category

Jan, I wrote this post for you because I know you like pies! Last Sunday we drove down to Freo for a supposed ramen outing. But the idea of waiting for two hours for a bowl of ramen wasn’t too appealing, so I suggested that we stop by the Miami Bakehouse which is located on Canning Highway about 10 minutes from Fremantle.

Apparently it’s flagship bakery in Falcon (that’s near Mandurah) is the most awarded bakery in WA and a must stop for travellers going down South. I have a feeling the pies in the original bakery must be even better, but it’s convenient that we don’t have to travel all the way to Mandurah for a piece of the award winning gourmet pies.

Look at all their awards, I noticed that they’re constantly picking up awards for their seafood pie and also sweet lamb curry pie. Their pies are pretty pricey ranging around $5 – $8 for a pie (I guess since they’re gourmet pies), at $7.70 for a seafood pie, I was hoping their pies were really really good.

Pies galore. It was a nice fine day so we sat outside with our pies to soak up the sun.

Jo mistook the Big Breakfast as a real big breakfast with eggs, tomatoes and the works. I think she was quite surprised when it turned out to be a big breakfast pie instead. It looked really yummy and cheesy.

Her big breakfast pie had beef chunks underneath a topping of egg, cheese and tomatoes (probably had bacon etc. as well) and was tasty, only it was really a big breakfast and on the heavy side, Jo had trouble finishing it in the end.

HC has the beef and guiness pie which was beef chunks in a Guiness flavoured sauce, I thought it was quite nice especially for those that like their pies with a beer-ish flavour to it. My only complaint would be that the beef could be even more tender.

I’m not sure I could detect the separate seafood in the pie as it was all mixed up together but it was yummy. The lemon pepper sauce was light, creamy and went great with the seafood chunks. Richard said he would return to bakehouse to try the other pies based on this pie.

I also bought an apple turnover (which apparently has won an award too) but it was only ordinary and nothing to shout about. We’re not really pie fanatics so I can’t really compare the Miami Bakehouse pies with other great pies. But… I will probably be visiting another famous pie shop quite soon so I’ll remember to do a comparison post then. I only hope the pies don’t cost an arm and leg!

So verdict on Miami Bakehouse is, the pies are pretty good and worth a visit if you’re travelling down to Freo and want something besides the norm fish and chips. Definitely drop by if you’re a pie lover just to say that you’ve eaten at the ‘most awarded bakery in WA’ ,they have a great variety of interesting pies like a lasagna pie, emu,kangaroo and camel pie which I want to try the next time I go (^__^).

Tuesday lunch bento was ’empty your fridge’ salad made out of leftovers in the fridge.

Included tofu, crabsticks, bamboo shoots and teriyaki fish with sesame, lime and fish sauce dressing. Quite good eaten straightaway but not great for the day after.

I always try to prepare Jo’s lunch bento on Wednesdays because she has to go to work straight after.

Her lunch bento was stir-fried five spice honey chicken and mixed vegetables with rice.

Luckily I didn’t have to do the ‘A week of my life’ meme this week. Because the weather had been horrible of late, rainy, gloomy, dark and wet. I shiver when I go out and I shiver when I go home. I don’t know why I used to say I like winter, winter is horrible!

It doesn’t help that I’ve been leaving the office later and later. Usually I am the only one left with all the big bosses around. Sometimes I think to myself ‘what the hell am I doing here? I’m just a minion!’ I think I haven’t seen the sun all week (T____T).

Today it was another late workday. By the time I got out of the building it was pitch dark and drizzling. Two blocks before I reached my bus stop, I saw my bus rolling down the terrace. To run or not to run? I ended up running after the bus in the rain while trying to keep my shoes from falling off (for some reason they’re so loose lately). I collapsed on the bus seat, panting and thinking ‘there’s got to be a better life than this’ (ya, can swim 100 laps but can’t sprint two blocks, I’m so unfit).

While walking home from the bus stop, I wondered what to cook for dinner. The supermarket and veg shop was closed, any meat in the freezer would be rock hard. Then Jo called my mobile ‘where are you?’ ‘Err walking home on the road’ ‘Oh I’m at the lights waiting for you, scared you walk home in the dark alone’ ‘But doesn’t it defeat the purpose when you’re there alone?! Dangerous for you also what!’ ‘No, I’m at the lights, lots of cars!’ *slap forehead* Sigh, still it was very sweet of her but please hor Jo, wait for me at home!

So I decided to reward both of us for walking in the rain and said ‘Let’s buy takeaway for dinner’. We were deciding between kebabs and Subway. Guess what we had in the end? Jesters pie!

Jo’s Footy pie which is chunks of lean beef with bacon and mushrooms topped with tasty cheese. Looked very nice and oozy.

Mine was a special and not on their normal menu! It’s a Peri Peri pie which had chicken chunks, potato and carrots in a slightly spicy peri-peri sauce. Not bad but then I don’t really like potatoes in pie. Still, the puff pastry was very yummy and it was fun having a pie for a change.

Btw, I’ve added a new ‘sometimes you just need a’ category in my list, it’s for those posts where I succumb to temptation and just think ‘what the heck, sometimes you just need a …’ so far I’ve had curry, sushi and pie (^__^). Once I’ve decided on the ratings system I will put it up on my About page.

Haha, I just had a chat with my mum, we were gossing about the latest tvb dramas and she said ‘Eh, that drama is REALLY HORRIBLE!!’ Then she said ‘You must watch it!’ I started laughing and said ‘ how come you say it’s really horible then you ask me to watch it?!’ She said ‘because you must watch it to see how horrible it is mah!’ My mum very cute hor Y(^___^)Y.

Err I don’t know whether you all have noticed, but the number of pictures of my posts are diminishing by the day (=___=). BUT it’s FRIDAY tomorrow, so hopefully there will be lots of things to do and blog about this weekend, friends who are reading this, quick ask me out!

The sunny weather in Perth has disappeared and it was cloudy and raining all day. This was taken from my seat at the bus (I was way up front), can you see Perth city and spot BankWest tower in the horizon?

I almost forgot about my breakfast meeting this morning. My manager, A and I traipsed in the rain to a little cafe nearby where they had breakfast while I had a latte. I tried to take a picture of my coffee by stealth but no one could miss the sound of the camera. ‘Di, are you taking photos? This is a violation of my intellectual property rights!’ my manager joked. I had to explain that my sisters, Heri and I are doing the meme, they both thought it was a lovely and cute idea. (=^____^=) so shy.

It was a crazy day at work which had me working till past 6pm. By the time I walked out of the office, the sky was dark, so no evening sky photos today. Sigh, couldn’t make it in time for swimming too. The terrace looks very different at night.

Jo greeting me in front of my bus stop. Jo called me while I was on the bus and said ‘where are you? I came to pick you up at Woolies’. She was worried that I would be walking home in the dark so drove to the nearby shopping center (where my bus stops) to pick me up. Haha, so sweet right?

Since we were already out, I suggested going to Carousel shopping center to pick up my colleague’s farewell present of a gift voucher from Myers. After what felt like an eternity, we finally got a parking space. An annoying thing happened while we were at the cashier, my coins fell on the floor and I took a step backward to pick up the coins. And stepped onto this young woman’s foot. I truly felt bad and kept apologising, Jo said sorry too. But this girl acted like we sawed off her foot and was groaning and grabbing on to her foot like we ran a truck over it. She made such a HUGE fuss and debacle that the cashier even said ‘do you need me to get the first aid people?’ which she declined. While we were paying she stood behind us with this huge scowl (funny how she recovered after people stopped looking at her). When her mother asked her something she said rudely ‘NO, I AM IN PAIN’. At first I was thinking of apologising again, but her attitude was so bad and rude that Jo and I decided to ignore her. In hindsight, she was wearing clunky leather boots and I was wearing flats, how could it be that painful? What a drama queen.

There’s a new donut store in Carousel called Dreamy Donuts. It reminds me of the Big Apple chain and Krispy Kreme with flavours like passionfruit, strawberry cheesecake etc. We didn’t buy any since donuts in Australia are much too sweet for me (but Krispy Kreme is too sweet too). Sigh, if only they had Mister Donut here, oh I miss those green tea donuts with red bean filling, so yummy!

I feel quite bad posting this up after Heri commented that my dinners are all so healthy looking. Because Jo and I sinned and bought takeaway for dinner! She had honey chicken with fried rice while I opted for Indian butter chicken, curried potatoes and rice. Haha, see, we’re not so healthy after all!

Lunch bento yesterday was grilled ponzu fish salad. It was the last piece of basa fillet from my fridge (much to Jo’s delight I’m sure).

I marinated the fillet with ponzu sauce (citrus flavoured soy sauce) and a bit of mirin and served it on bed of shredded cabbage and apple strips.

Even though Jo said the fish was tasty, I could sense a faltering enthusiasm for our grilled fish repertoire, so I tried to ‘hide’ her fish with a sunny side up, not sure whether they went well together though. I figured since Jo’s favourite empek empek is fish cake with egg filling, this was an ’empek empek’ of some sort.

I am exhausted!! I called Jo on the way home and said ‘Eh, I’m too tired to cook, let’s get some takeaway today’. I thought she would jump at the chance of eating her favourite fast food like McD’s etc. but to my surprise, she opted for Kabuki (the takeaway sushi place near my house) instead. What can I say? Sometimes you just need sushi for the tired soul.

Lunch bento tomorrow is chicken, avocado and mandarin orange salad.

I know I mentioned in the last post that I really like Thai food, but really, I am partial towards Japanese cuisine , which also explains my penchant for cooking Japanese food. The other day I was watching Anthony Bourdain on Youtube and he asked all the chefs something along the lines of ‘what would be your last meal if it was your last day on Earth?’ I asked Jo the same question and she said ‘Japanese food! or … maybe Mum’s cooking’. My answer would probably be the same.

But I think Jo and I were cheating with our ‘Mum’s cooking’ answer, because my Ah Ma is a fantastic cook, and she can bake bread (so good straight out of the oven), make dimsum (my dad likes her xiao long bao while I love her char siew bao) and whip up yummy dishes of all nationalities ranging from sambal prawns, fish and chips to authentic Nyonya cuisine.If only I could cook like my mum.